Uses of the gift of Tongues :D

Man, I think I'll be typing out almost the few chapters of the book Drawing Near!

Actually about the gift of tongues, I earnestly desire it before I got it and when I got it, oh what joy I have! Why do I want it so much? Because I can pray all day long to God, because I can just communicate with God all day long! And, oh, what joy it is to just spend time with God!

Before this, I only know one thing about the gift of tongues - it is when you pray until you know no words to pray, then you can pray in tongues as the Holy Spirit enables because I heard of this verse in Romans 8:26 that says, The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. :D

Imagine that! I've always loved praying and talking to God. But before I had tongues, I feel like my prayers are inadequate and there seemed to be so much more that I want to tell which I don't know how to tell and it limits my prayer. But with tongues, it's AWESOME! And of course, this is the personal kind of tongues.

Like a husband and wife whispers secrets in secret codes that no one else understand, that's what my view on the gift of tongues is - a secret, intimate code between me and God. :D

Then I learned more about more uses of the gift of tongues. (which is even more awesome) So I'll be deriving points from the Drawing Near book by John Bevere on the purpose and uses of tongues.

The main purpose is - intimacy. In fact, the title of the chapter on tongues is The Language of Intimacy :D So that is like how I described above about tongues. Scripture tells us: For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. (1 Cor.14:2)

We will be communing with God on His level when we pray in tongues. We also speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for out glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1Cor. 2:7-8) He will even reveal to us the secrets of His.

Some translation says "... for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. (1 Cor. 14:2) What does Paul mean by mysteries? The Greek word is musterion. W.E Vine, who is an expert in Greek New Testament words, writes about this word, "In the New Testament it denotes, not the mysterious (as with the English word), but that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by divine revelation, and is made known... to those only who are illuminated by His Spirit. In the ordinary sense a 'mystery' implies knowledge withheld; its Scriptural significance is truth revealed,"

When we pray in tongues, ideas, revelations, wisdom, or teachings simply come to mind. New ideas, new understanding just come and so suddenly we will understand. Scripture tells us: "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly." Proverbs 20:27.

Other than that, when we pray in tongues about some situation or over some decisions, we will get the counsel of God in the thing we prayed for. We will get indications about the direction of God and peace comes. For example, when I don't know what to do in a situation, I pray in tongues and the idea comes in. Sometimes it's when something happen, an unexpected door opens and I pray for God's guidance about whether to enter in or not and I felt at peace, that's an indication that it's Him who opened the door.

We pray in tongues to build our inner man. We need to be nearer to God, to be in touch with the Holy Spirit. Soon it is not enough to just understand the scriptures with our own understanding. We must develop sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is saying, rather than only what He has said. Jesus lived this way. He lived according to the Spirit.

He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. 1 Cor 14:4

The Greek word for edifies is oikodomeo. It's pure definition is "to build a house." This is interesting in the fact that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Therefore when we pray in tongues we are enlarging our dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. We are giving Him more room to occupy.

SO when we pray in tongues we enlarge our ability to contain His presence and power within out lives. We are strengthening our inner man so that we are more easily led by the Spirit of God, rather than our natural minds.

OKAY. I have tried my very best to summarize the whole thing but it turned out so long still. Need more details or answers to any of your questions, please do ask. :)